The bit I liked seeing was Jack cartoons with lasses featured in them. How novel! [/quote]

Tugg was on that as soon as the girls went to sea Steve. Lovely one in the early nineties - Jack and his oppo cackling about hopes of "trapping" in next port of call - Jenny comes in with "I won't have any trouble", or words to that effect.

The bit I liked seeing was Jack cartoons with lasses featured in them. How novel!

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Tugg was on that as soon as the girls went to sea Steve. Lovely one in the early nineties - Jack and his oppo cackling about hopes of "trapping" in next port of call - Jenny comes in with "I won't have any trouble", or words to that effect.

2BM

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Thanks for that 2BM. It reflects the fact that the last NN I read was in the, er, 1980s (well, apart from their special G Spot edition ).

Since the Navy News is not aimed at serving personnel, (who wants to read massive articles on Type 42, Ocean et al......we serve on the bloody things), most serving personnel would not pay for it anyway, it only gets read by the majority because it comes down the mess decks free (or around the offices/messes/WR for barrack stantions!). From my observations most matelots flick through it to see if there is anyone they know, have a quick look at the Swap Drafts and the 2-6 page (one of the few usefull regular articles) and then leave it in the heads.

Having served with the Army and had the pleasure of reading Soldier there is no comparision, it contains articles which can and do cause debate, in my memory I cannot remember seeing any article criticle of the Senior Service or the pathetic decisions that are being made by our political masters that are undermining the RN. The NN will not be popular with serving matelots (of the thinking variety) until it has true journalistic freedom and does not just spout the political party line from our lords and masters.

These days there are more pages devoted the the RNA, Seacadets (and I am not denigrating these worthy organisations in any way but the NN should do what it says on the tin and print NAVY news) and Adverts than to the balanced reporting on what is happening to the Navy.

Since the Navy News is not aimed at serving personnel, (who wants to read massive articles on Type 42, Ocean et al......we serve on the bloody things), most serving personnel would not pay for it anyway, it only gets read by the majority because it comes down the mess decks free (or around the offices/messes/WR for barrack stantions!). From my observations most matelots flick through it to see if there is anyone they know, have a quick look at the Swap Drafts and the 2-6 page (one of the few usefull regular articles) and then leave it in the heads.

Having served with the Army and had the pleasure of reading Soldier there is no comparision, it contains articles which can and do cause debate, in my memory I cannot remember seeing any article criticle of the Senior Service or the pathetic decisions that are being made by our political masters that are undermining the RN. The NN will not be popular with serving matelots (of the thinking variety) until it has true journalistic freedom and does not just spout the political party line from our lords and masters.

These days there are more pages devoted the the RNA, Seacadets (and I am not denigrating these worthy organisations in any way but the NN should do what it says on the tin and print NAVY news) and Adverts than to the balanced reporting on what is happening to the Navy.

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I'm afraid to say that I'm in agreement mate. NN isn't known as the Pompey Propaganda for nothing.

I,too, have also spent a fair bit of time working in Army and Joint Service environments and have to say that SOLDIER beats NN hands down in every aspect. It actually has serving personnel writing in about various issues and isn't as patronising as NN is. It has also been free to serving personnel for at least 5 1/2 years (well, it was when I was in an army unit at the start of 2002 and I still get free copies now in a Joint Service establishment).

BTW, Asst_Ed, the constant jokes/quips in brackets by the editor in each and every issue are getting a bit tiresome now. NN is looked on with disdain by serving personnel because of the positive spin put on everything. How about coping the format of SOLDIER Magazine?

For those posters who have never read SOLDIER, go and get a copy-it is actually a very very good read.

I know you may laugh, but I would like to see some RNR articles too. I think most serving personnel would admit that we are not the 'really not requireds' we were 25 years ago, and I for one would like to see some recognition of that fact.

Especially since the buzz words at the mo are integration and flip flopping.

The cost will be the same as the printed version (ie Â£1.40 per issue). It's chiefly aimed at the overseas market (because they wait ages to get a copy) and units on deployment. I'm not sure of all the particulars; our marketing manager knows them in more detail and we'll be putting them in the paper and online shortly. Sorry I cannot be more specific. I'll post more when I know it.

As for comparisons with Soldier, we are entirely different beasts. Soldier is paid for by the Army in toto to distribute to every single squaddie. The RN doesn't do that. I think the ratio is 1 copy for every 5 matelots.

Our remit is different from Soldier, which is almost entirely devoted to serving personnel. We have to cover RNA, Sea Cadets, Museums (it's in our charter) and we also have to appeal to outside readers who help pay for the cost of running us (Soldier's sales outside the Army are much smaller than ours because its remit is different).

As for propaganda, we try to be as honest as we can within limitations. The journalistic team are MOD civil servants (the same goes for Soldier). I would love for there to be more of a debate in NN rather than old boys writing in about what a great pot mess they had mid-Atlantic in 1942.
I say this repeatedly to units/ships/squadrons: IF YOU DON'T TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON WE DO NOT KNOW. The onus is on people to tell us things. We're not mind-readers. If something sucks, tell us it sucks and we'll do what Soldier does...

And as for the humour, we try to liven up the paper. The military is a serious business. It can be a tedious business. We try to capture some of Jack's humour or at least make something slightly less mundane. I'll be the first to admit we don't always get it right. If you want a po-faced newspaper full of 2-6 articles, we can do that. If you want something Jane's-esque we can probably do that too. But I fear it would be a very dry read.

I hope that explains a few things. Four people write NN every month. We get far more brickbats than bouquets (such is the nature of journalism). But we do our best. We care passionately about the RN/RM. And above all we're pretty much the only publication which champions the RN and RM month in month out. We can always improve. I would say today's paper is leaps and bounds ahead of the one two years ago. The ratio of current stories to RNA/Sea Cadets is far higher (I think it's about 80 per cent). If you have suggestions for improvements, features, I can only reiterate. TELL US. We'll see what we can do.

I wasn't actually expecting you to respond but thank you very much for the comments!!

I think the E-Version is absolutely cracking to be honest but it should be slightly cheaper than the print version to reflect the costs incurred.

I fully appreciate the need to incorporate RNR, Museums, and Sea Cadets but there does seem to be an extremely heavy emphasis towards the Puddle Pirates and it has appeared to be that way since I joined up in '97 but as you said you do have a charter to abide by so fair enough I suppose.

I had a story submitted a couple of years ago regarding an award I was given for beating over 3,000 pongos, crabs and a few matelots. I was given my award by CINCFLEET and the story was submitted to NN but it was never printed....(I got destroyed in my branch newsletter anyway so it doesn't matter )

2-6 is definitely a step in the right direction but can you have words with the production staff as the DVD has a certain 'Media Studies' approach to the presentation of it.